Strangely Connected
by rubyoverhill
Summary: Sakura – newcomer. Syaoran – amber eyed, green haired, pierced and tattooed cold hearted freak. What happened in his life to transform to a green haired freak? Will Sakura break all his barriers?
1. Chapter 1

_I, SJ, DO NOT OWN Cardcaptor Sakura. It belongs to CLAMP. _

_This fanfiction was inspired from the story - 'At the end of the day'._

**Title: Strangely Connected **

**Summary: **Sakura – newcomer. Syaoran – amber eyed, green haired, pierced and tattooed cold hearted freak. What happened in his life to transform to a green haired freak? Will Sakura break all his barriers?

**Dedication: **This fiction is dedicated to Divya, Laya, Mahima, Rubyia, Priyanka, Ariya, Luanne, Trissia, Bincy.

**--*--*--**

The first thing that came into my attention was his hair. GREEN! How can people have green hair? Even if you have negative IQ, you could say that it was dyed. I don't mean I have negative IQ. I was assuring you that he dyed his hair to BRIGHT GREEN!

Funny part was I don't know why I was just complaining about his hair, when many of his features were disturbing - his lip and eyebrow rings, and the tattoo on his left arm (only the one that's visible - I wonder if there are more!) was about differential calculus. Strange kid! Isn't studying them enough? May be he's crazy, because both of us were having AP Calculus right now.

The teacher had the chairs set up in the debate fashion, with half the desks on one side of the classroom, and the other half on the other, so we were staring into the eyes of our classmates as she prattled on about some mathematicians. This was my second class of the day.

All around me, students were chattering about their summer vacations, who hooked up with whom, who had the best party, and who will be having best parties soon. But as the newcomer to the school, I stayed out of conversations and studied our Mr. Green Head. Right now, he fascinated me the most. He didn't join in any of the conversations surrounding him; instead, he remained sprawled in his seat with a bored and impatient expression on his face. He had a silver ring on the right side of his bottom lip, and the black ring in his left eyebrow.

There was an aura of mystery around him that I straight away felt attracted to, of course not romantically. And I know why. He somehow made me think about my Oniichan. He was like this guy for almost one year after our mother's death – always wearing black shirt and jeans and dyed his hair to blue. At first, dad decided to ignore his changes. But later on, when his grades started dropping, dad decided to give him proper care and guidance, which greatly influenced Oniichan, and brought him back to what he really was.

As I pored over Mr. Green Head, who was sitting directly across from me, his amber eyes suddenly made contact with my emerald green ones. _'Is he wearing contacts too?' _He glared at me, but I was undaunted as I continued staring back at him. I was not one to break eye contact first, no matter how scary my opponent was.

A scowl spread across Mr. Green Head's face when he saw that I didn't intend to look away. Even the amber-ness of his eyes couldn't force me to back down. If he planned on having any more staring contests with me, he should learn soon that I always won. No questions asked.

The bell rang, and Mr. Green Head ripped his gaze away from mine. I smirked in TRIUMPH and looked towards the front of the classroom, where the teacher was closing the screen of her laptop and standing up from the desk. No one quieted down, though—they all continued nattering on about their summer vacations.

"Class," the teacher demanded forcefully. I don't know what it was about the way she said it — but it got nearly everyone to settle down and we looked straight at her.

"I hope you like where you're sitting," she continued, "because I'm making a seating chart, and that's where you'll be for the rest of the year. By the way I'm Miss Meehan."

I looked at the girls surrounding me. On my right was a gorgeous blonde girl, and on my left sat another beautiful girl, smiling with her amethyst eyes, a smile tilting up on her pale face. Directly across the room from me sat Mr. Green Head, who didn't even seem to be paying attention to what was going on.

Miss Meehan began reading off names from the class list, and then scribbling into a seating chart where which person was sitting.

"Sharon Li?" she called out.

"Syaoran Li, not Sharon Li," Mr. Green Head growled at Miss Meehan. I was the only one in the entire class who snickered. All eyes snaked around me thinking - the newbie who didn't know her place.

Miss Meehan narrowed her eyes, obviously displeased with his disrespectful tone. "Okay, Syaoran Li."

And from then, there was never a minute I didn't wonder about the amber-eyed, green-haired boy across from me.

**--*--*--**

I walked into the cafeteria for my fifth period, lunch and realized that I hadn't even made a single friend. Back at my old school, I was always welcomed my friends and had plenty of them. Here I was placeless, and I was unsure of where to be and whether the people here would like me. Thinking of the movies where students ate at toilets, I regretted not being nice to the new kids.

For a few minutes, I remained at the door, almost waiting for someone to just come up to me and invite me to eat lunch with her. But nothing happened.

Then I spotted Mr. Green Head - well, his hair, actually - sitting at a lunch table in a corner, eating lunch alone. It was easy for me to guess that he wanted to sit alone. But there was no other 'perfect' spot for me at the cafeteria that made me to walk over towards him.

As I neared, I saw that he was reading a thick book. In front of him sat his lunch that was typical of a teenage guy. He didn't even look up as I slid into the seat across from him and dropped my backpack onto the ground.

"Hi." My voice quivered as I uneasily smoothed my hair back. He didn't respond, just kept reading.

"I'm Sakura Kinomoto. I'm new here," I continued uneasily. "I was in your AP Calculus class."

He didn't even pretend to answer me, and I knew it was because he wanted me to leave him alone - I mean, the lunchroom was loud, but not that loud. And there was no way he was so into his book that he couldn't hear someone speaking directly at him.

"Whatcha reading?" I asked conversationally. My voice sounded towering and high-pitched, so unlike my natural tone.

Slowly, (as if someone had pressed the slow-motion button) Mr. Green Head lifted his head and locked his amber eyes, gleaming with irritation, onto my own. When he realized I was the same girl who had stared at him in Calculus, the eyes narrowed.

"What do you want?" he shushed lowly, forcing me to strain my ears to hear him.

My anxiety got the best of me because I babbling, "Well, I'm new here, so I don't have anyone to eat with, and -"

"Is that my problem?" he interrupted, his voice cold. _'Rude'_

I gulped. "Well, no, but I saw you sitting by yourself, and I figured that you needed a friend too, so I -"

"Do I look," he began as he cut me off once more, "like I want to be your friend?"

I frowned when I heard that a slight accent to his words—like a hidden lilt lurking underneath that threatened to burst forth. If I'd been curious before, I was absolutely starved for facts now. Who's he really?

"Did you grow up in China?" my betraying mouth blurted out.

I have never seen a more hateful glare than the one Mr. Green Head directed at me at that moment. "Do you have a death wish?" he growled, the accent was gone.

Bravery swept into me. "You don't own this table. I can sit where I want."

If looks could kill, well, I'd probably have been dead by now.

"I don't have anywhere else to sit," I told him, gesturing widely around the cafeteria, even though there were most certainly other empty spots where I could have chosen to sit.

"There are plenty of empty seats," he responded moodily, his thoughts on the same track as mine.

I shrugged. "I'm already here. What's the point in moving?"

He glared at me, but I, never one to back down, stared straight back into those icy amber eyes of his. What will be his real eye color?

"Fine! You can sit there. But DON'T talk to me, or I WILL kill you."

He finally realized that I wasn't going to give in. I shrugged and pulled my lunch out of my backpack, keeping his threat in mind. Despite his beliefs, I really didn't have a death wish, which is why I kept my mouth shut for the rest of the lunch period, eating my sandwich in silence. But it didn't stop the questions about him from piling up in my head.

Mainly one question, 'Who's Syaoran Li?'

**--*--*--**

_A/N:_

_Liked the story? If so, click on to the review._

_Sorry for making Syaoran into a green haired freak._


	2. Chapter 2

_I, SJ, DO NOT OWN Cardcaptor Sakura. It belongs to CLAMP. This fanfiction was inspired from the story - 'At the end of the day'._

**Title: Strangely Connected **

**--*--*--**

**Chapter 2**

I didn't see Li until the last period, AP Biology. He was seated in his favorite seat, the desk in the back corner. I seated myself in the middle. Advanced Placement class again? I hated to sound cold. But aren't people like him supposed to skip class all the time and never do their school work?

He must have felt my eyes on him, because he suddenly turned those haunting amber eyes onto my face and scowled. As always, though, I looked straight back at him until he turned his head away.

As I was enjoying my victory again.

"Hey, you."

I heard a girl's voice say on my left. I turned to look at her, I hadn't seen her before. She had straight, dark black hair with bangs in the front half-covering her left eye.

"Me?" I repeated, wondering what this girl wants from me.

"Yeah," she nodded. "You were the one sitting with Li at lunch today; weren't you?" She said this in a quiet voice; as if she was afraid he would hear.

Why were people so scared of this guy? Is it because of his colored contacts, dyed his hair green, tattoos and piercing? Or was there something more?

"Yeah," I answered unwillingly, unsure of her intentions.

Her eyes widened to twice their normal size and clapping her hand over her mouth, she yelled, "Oh my god! I can't believe it!"

She turned to her left and declared to all her friends, "I told you she was the girl!"

Instantaneously, I felt their gazes on me. The girl turned back to me. "You're new here, aren't you?"

"Yeah," I answered hesitantly.

She nodded. "Easy guess."

She lowered her voice and leaned in closer. "That's the only reason anyone would sit with Li."

I lowered my eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

Shaking her head, she avoided the question. "Nothing. Leave it. But what was it like? What did he say?"

"Totally nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

A frown wrinkled her face because of the lack of the gossip. She looked over at her friends uncertainly, as if she needed moral support to question '_the girl who had sat with Li at lunch'_.

The bell rang to signal the beginning of the period, but the teacher was still nowhere to be found.

"Are you going to sit with him tomorrow also?" She inquired as she about to leave.

I shook my head, "Probably not if I find somebody else to sit with!"

She frowned again. _'What was that frown for?'_

"Well, if you don't sit with him, you can sit with us," she told me, though the offer didn't sound quite as sincere. Behind the girl, I saw her friends exchanging glances. I knew deep down that they didn't want me to sit with them. _'But I want to make friends here.'_

"Sure," I replied ignoring her friends. "That'd be cool. I'm Sakura Kinomoto, by the way."

She introduced herself as Akira and briefly explained to me where she and her friends sat. Meanwhile, the teacher walked in and began shuffling through stacks of papers on his desk.

"I'm Mr. Hussar," he told the class once we were quiet enough. "Welcome to AP Biology. I've got a little seating chart here."

Groans erupted from my classmates.

"What?" Mr. Hussar asked.

"Seating charts are stupid," some kid behind me retorted.

"They're not for eternity. You only have to sit in your assigned seats until I figure out all of your names. Then you can sit wherever."

"Why don't you just make a seating chart out of where we're sitting now?" the same kid asked.

Mr. Hussar shook his head. "I've already got this made up."

He approached the desk on the far side from the door in the first row and put his hand on it, "Akira Diasuki, you'll sit here."

He continued down the columns, resting his hand on a desk and calling out a name. When he got to the second desk from the front in the third column, he announced, "Syaoran Li."

"And I'm not sitting there."

Poor Mr. Hussar stared at Li with a confused expression. "Why not?"

"Because I sit here."

There was silence as Mr. Hussar considered Li's demand. I was the only person in the entire classroom who twisted in my seat to see the expression on Li's face. It was cold and determined. Some green hair dropped across his forehead, a few strands falling into his face, and his amber eyes flared dangerously.

"Okay. I suppose that's all right. Yumi Sushi, you'll sit here. Li, you'll just sit there," Mr. Hussar finally agreed.

Li shot me a death glare, and I turned to face the front again. I almost expected this Yumi to protest having to sit up closer to the front because of the demands of some stupid Green-head kid, but she said nothing as she prepared to move her seat. Meanwhile, Mr. Hussar continued down the aisles, touching desks and calling out names. Eventually, he got to me.

"Sakura Kinomoto," he declared as he touched a desk which was diagonal to Li's seat and in front of his.

For the thousandth time that day, Li's eyes roughly locked onto mine. I could read the enmity in them.

Is it because of his deathly glares that everyone is scared of him?

I was going to figure him out even if I had to die.

AP Biology had ended, my thoughts drifted elsewhere as I walked towards my locker. High school around here ended at 3:30, but my brother will come to pick me only at 4.05. I had absolutely no clue how I was going to preoccupy myself during those empty thirty-five minutes. However, that concern was quickly overshadowed by one person hanging around in my head - Li. I was surrounded with too much of his mystery-cal aura that even resisting his thoughts was hard for me.

"Kinomoto," a voice spoke up from behind me. I turned to the girl who had called my name. It was Akira from Biology, standing there with her hostile body language.

"Um, hey," I replied to her, taking a suspicious step back from her.

"We're going to go get coffee," she declared, sounding bored. I took careful note of how she failed to define the people who all are 'we'. "You wanna come?"

"Why?"

She looked startled by the question. Honestly, I was a bit startled at myself; I needed to make new friends. Yet Akira looked distinctly unfriendly, even though she was the only person I'd had any conversation with in this entire school, besides the teachers and of course, Li. I could easily tell that she wasn't very interested in being my friend. She was more interested in the gossip I had about the boy with the shocking green hair. The logical part of me reminded me that I wasn't in the position to be picky about making new friends. But ultimately, I decided I didn't want to be with a bunch of people who needed me only for their gossips.

"You're new." The surprise was poorly hidden in her voice, "Don't you need to make friends?"

"Yeah, genuine ones."

She was clever enough to interpret this statement correctly – _'I'd seen through your façade, and I wasn't interested in making friends solely out of gossip'_. A scowl crossed across her face.

"Okay. I'll see you later." With that, she turned around and stalked down the hall. I watched as she met up with a group of attractive girls. Once she reached them, they all turned their heads to look at me. When they realized I was looking back, shades of red dusted the cheeks of each girl, and they averted their gazes. I was about to turn back to my locker when the gaze of a petite amethyst eyed and haired girl caught my eye. She was so short that I almost didn't even notice her until my green eyes unexpectedly connected with hers. A light smile graced her face before she turned and gracefully walked down the hallway. I watched her go.

With an annoyed sigh, I waited for my brother in front of the school gate. I didn't understand why my father still wants me to depend on my brother for transportation. Not only would it save gas because I'd go walk home in this thirty minutes, but it would save me a whole lot of trouble waiting for him. Protective family!

I hardly had to wait a minute after 4.05 as Touya called me. Touya Kinomoto. My annoying big brother. He is a teacher at Tomoeda High School for boys.

"Hey, Touya," I greeted my brother through my cell phone. I continued, "Are you here yet?"

"Where are you?"

"In front of the school. Where else could I be?"

"Good. I'm coming out there now."

"Oh. I see you. Bye." I hung up the call.

"This is a weird place!" I announced when I climbed into the passenger's seat.

"Bad day?" He asked jokingly.

"Are you kidding?"

"How can you tell that after one day?"

I just gave him 'you would never understand a teenager like me' look.

"So made any friends?"

"Not yet."

"Nobody wants to be miss rude's friend?"

I sighed. That was Touya for me. Annoying.

I climbed out of the car, gathered my stuff from the backseat, and made my way into my room. As soon as I got there, I collapsed onto my unmade bed and called my best friend, Chiraru.

"Sakura!" she squealed when she picked up the phone. "Oh my god! Hi!"

I smiled at her exuberance. "Hey, Chiru. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing. Hey, wasn't your first day of school today?"

"Yeah. It was." My mind immediately flashed back to Li, and then to Akira, the gossiper.

"So? What was it like?"

"Our typical first day of school, minus you."

"Did you meet anybody? Like, any new friends?"

I thought for a moment before telling her all about Li. When I finished, there was a silence from her end of the phone.

"I don't know about him, Sakura," she began with a warning tone. "He may be a drug addict, or a serial killer, or something."

"Maybe he's just misunderstood."

"Maybe he belongs to some super secret, Satan-worshipping group where they sacrifice innocent young virgins like you."

"Maybe you have a wild imagination."

"Okay, so maybe I do, but seriously, he sounds like bad news."

"'Bad news!'" I repeated. "Who says that?"

"Me. But I'm serious, Sakura. Just watch out, okay?"

"I'm just curious about him. That's all."

"I just want you to be careful. If he offers you anything in a package or wants to meet up in a dark alley or something -"

I rolled my eyes. "I'll be careful, Chiru. I promise. I'm a big girl."

"Okay, so enough about Mr. Green Head. Did you meet anyone else?"

"No one special."

"What does that mean?"

"It means she was a bitch who was only interested in being my friend because of the gossip potential."

"Gossip potential? Sakura, they don't even know you yet. How can there be gossip potential?"

"Because of that guy, remember? Everyone's afraid of him, and since I sat with him at lunch, that makes me some sort of hero or something."

"Well, nobody's treating you like a hero. And why are you assuming stuffs about a girl who wants to your friend?"

"You started school on Monday, right?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

Chiraru accepted the switching of the topic and started telling me about my friends – right now my ex-friends. We went on talking about what was going on back where I used to live for a while, before Chiraru announced that she had to leave and hung up.

Tossing my phone onto the desk, I lay back in my bed and stared at the ceiling. Not for the first time, I hated this move to Tomoeda and everything to do with it. I'd been here for about a month now, and I'd managed somewhat to overcome the feeling of loneliness, but it would always increase tenfold after I talk to Chiraru. I was starting to regret having blown off Akira earlier today, even if she was a Gossip Queen. The only other person I had besides her was Li - and he wasn't exactly the greatest person with whom you could be friends.

Suddenly, I had an idea. It was nothing earth-shattering, and maybe it wasn't even a new idea: I was going to be friends with Li. Earlier, I was only interested in figuring out why he was so isolated. But now, in addition to cracking him open, I was going to make him my friend, whether he liked it or not.

I love challenges and he was my challenge.

--*--*--

_A/N:_

_Sorry for introducing such a different story._

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed! _


	3. Chapter 3

_I, SJ, DO NOT OWN Cardcaptor Sakura. It belongs to CLAMP. This fanfiction was inspired from the story - 'At the end of the day'._

**Title: Strangely Connected **

**--*--*--**

**Chapter 3**

I have read an article somewhere stating that the girls are attracted to screwed-up guys, because they want to fix them and they believe they could, as if the girls were the mechanic and the guys were the rusty old cars.

May be, that's reason why I'm attracted towards Li. I swear that it wasn't a romantic attraction. I will call it – '_human inquisitiveness' _as I have many unanswered questions about him.

1) Is Li really 'normal'?

2) What kind of kid would dye his hair green and wear amber contact lenses? (His amber lenses! That's the only thing I like about him.)

3) What kind of teenager would willingly do stuffs so that the entire school would detest him?

In AP Calculus class, I couldn't stop myself from staring at him for nearly the entire period. He consistently ignored my stare, though, I couldn't blame him.

By the time I reached the cafeteria for the lunch, it was packed full of kids. Spotting Li, with his DAZZLING green hair, was a piece of cake. (This would have been the first time anyone thanked God for Li's unique hair color.) He was sitting at the same table as before, in the corner of the cafeteria. I assumed he was still reading that book that he had been reading yesterday.

That's when I realized that everyone in cafeteria was staring at me. I recognized Akira sitting in the table that she specified to me yesterday. Her friends were there too. At the end of the table sat the same pale amethyst eyed and haired girl with a small smile on her face. It was inspiring, compared to faces around her that watched me as if I were some rare species of animal.

When my eyes connected with Akira's, she turned blank and stared coldly at me. I remembered her invitation from yesterday to sit with her and her friends at lunch today, and I wondered what she would do if I actually took her up on that offer, since I rejected that offer when I told her I didn't want to be her friend yesterday after school.

I zigzagged through the tables, heading straight towards the one where Li was sitting. I ignored all the stares including Akira's burning stare.

Like yesterday, Li didn't acknowledge me as I dropped into the seat across from him. He seems to be wrapped in his book, not even glancing away as he reached for his pizza and took a bite.

"Mmmm," I began, trying to get his attention.

"What do you want?" He interrupted, callously and coldly, not even glancing up at me. I could still see students staring at Li and me.

"Mmm."

I knew what I want – I wanted to be his friend. I had decided this yesterday after my call to Chiraru. Maybe he didn't want a friend or need a friend, but I did. I could get friends easily, but not true friends. That's why I wanted to befriend him.

'_But I can't tell him that. He will kill me right now.'_

"My brother once dyed his hair to blue," No other reason came into my head.

'_Damn you Sakura.'_

His amber eyes stopped moving over the pages of his book. My stupid excuse did interest him, or he was so annoyed with me that he couldn't read any longer. But then I saw those amber eyes flashed upwards to look at me. Then suddenly that look turned into a glare.

"Do I look like I care?" he asked me in his cold voice.

"Your hair's dyed too," idiotically I replied.

"It's naturally this color," he replied so seriously that I wasn't sure if he was mocking me or not. I thought I was the master at picking up sarcasm because of my brother, but now I wasn't so sure.

"Was that sarcastic?"

The hatred on his face intensified. "What do you think?"

To signal an end in our conversation, he looked back down at his book and stuffed another piece of pizza into his mouth. I knew I was defeated when I saw it, so I finally pulled my lunch box out of my backpack, prepared to eat in silence like I had yesterday.

Five minutes passed by, and nothing happened. And I wondered, not for the first or last time, why I was even doing this in the first place. Clearly, Li did not want any friends, so I wasn't doing him any favors. On the other hand, I actually needed friends, so 'talking to him' was injurious to my future social life. There was still time for me to free myself from this situation. I still had time to ignore Li and to fear him like the rest of the school and befriend normal students.

I lifted my head up from my lunch and looked around the cafeteria. Where would I go, though? With whom would I sit, instead? I don't want to return to Akira and her gossiping friends. This silence with Li was better than gossiping with her and her friends.

Determined not to spend the rest of the lunch in his hush-ness, determined to break through the solid barrier that Li had set up between himself and the world, I made another pathetic effort at conversation.

"Why do you hate me?"

"I don't hate you."

I wasn't expecting an answer in the first place, but he even denied that he-hate-me fact, it was rather shocking. Today's my lucky day.

'_But, how was that possible? This is Li.'_

"You don't?"

"I hate everyone."

This was not that surprising as _'I don't hate you'_ comment. I put both my elbows on the table and leaned forward, resting my chin in my hands, "Why?"

He flipped a page in his book, even though I was almost positive he hadn't actually finished the page he was on.

"Are you deaf?" Li's words startled me once more.

"Do I… seem deaf?" I asked, confused at the question. His amber eyes met my emerald ones.

"I told you yesterday not to talk to me."

I said nothing, waiting to see where he was going with this.

"I said not to talk to me or I'd kill you."

Something flashed in his eyes, and for one terrifying moment, I expected him to pull a gun out and shoot me straight through the heart.

"Is that a threat?" I asked more boldly than I felt. I put my hands on my lap, underneath the table, so Li couldn't see that they were shaking.

He responded. "It's whatever you think it is."

"You could never kill someone," I stated like it was a predictable fact. A muscle around his lips jolted, signaling that I was definitely correct. That was a relief.

"You'd never even hit a girl, would you?"

"Don't pretend you know me," he scoffed. He was clutching his book as tightly as it was the end of the world. Right then, I knew he was so absorbed in what I was saying.

"I know what you're afraid of," I told him. While I was the core of courage on the outside, while I was shaking with fear on the inside.

The normal part of my brain was screaming at me to just leave this crazy kid alone and go find normal friends. Yet that part seemed to have no control over my actions. Controlling me right now was my inquisitiveness and determination.

"Yeah, right."

"You're afraid of people seeing the real you." Now that was a total gunshot in the dark.

But he said nothing.

"You're afraid that if they see the real you, they won't like you." Another gunshot in the dark.

"You're so full of bullshit. You don't know anything about me," he retorted. The slight accent of Chinese was there.

I sighed loudly, cursing myself when my breath came out shaky. Li noticed and smirked.

"Scared?" he asked, the accent was gone. The smirk gradually developed into a robotic grin. He leaned forward. "You should be."

I skewed backwards, distancing myself from his eyes and grin.

"You wouldn't hurt me." My voice was not as confident as before.

"I dunno." He closed his book. He glanced down at it, annoyed, but then turned back up to me with the scary smile still in tact. "Would I?"

"No, you wouldn't," I answered a bit more stubbornly than last time.

He leaned forward a little more, and I pushed myself backwards from the table. The tables had most definitely turned – I was the prey and he was the hunter.

"Do you want to test that theory?"

I wanted nothing more than to get up and sit on the complete other side of the cafeteria, and then I realized that he was doing this on purpose. It was another one of his strategy to get me to leave him alone. When he has switched to his 'freaking-me-out-technique', when 'violent-technique' hadn't worked on me! Wicked!

Irritated that this method had actually worked, I crossed my arms over my chest and pursed my lips. "Nice try," I said dryly.

Then I leaned forward to force him backwards, and it worked. The second our faces were about a foot apart, the eerie grin slid right off his face and he flew backwards, and his head tilted backwards slightly. Green hair flopped into his face, covering his amber eyes.

"Leave me alone," he ordered through gritted teeth.

"No."

"Why?" His voice had a new tone of desperation in it, I noticed as he finally pushed his hair out of his eyes.

I cocked my head to the side. "Because.. hmmm...."

"Curiosity will kill the cat," he informed me gruffly, grabbing hold of his book and pushing it back and forth across the table in slow, rhythmic movements.

"Good thing I'm not a cat, then."

When I smiled, he stood up abruptly and walked away, leaving all his belongings behind.

For the rest of the lunch period, he had never returned to gather his things. I stared at Li's barely touched lunch and closed paperback book – 'Three Mistakes'. I was surprised to see that he was just reading normal books because I expecting something dark that I'd never head of. I could feel the eyes of the table behind me and hear their whispers, as they wondered over the stuffs going on between Li and me.

I wasn't surprised when Li never showed up for Biology. Not only because he'd walked away from me at lunch, but because he seemed like the type of guy who would skip class. I twisted around to look at his empty seat. I knew Akira and all her friends were watching me carefully, noting that I was staring at Li's empty seat and analyzing what this could possibly mean. I was sure that there were others watching me, as well. My second day at the school, and I already had a reputation. I didn't know whether to be glad or upset.

I turned back to the front, when Mr. Hussar started his class. Frequently in between his class, my mind started drifting. What was Li doing right now? Was he driving around? Was he out smoking? Did he have friends from another school that he was with right now? Were his stuffs still left there? Or had he retrieved it?

I suddenly came into reality, as the girl in front of me jabbed papers in my face. With a jolt, I noticed that she was the same pale amethyst eyed and haired girl who had actually seemed friendly. She had her eyebrows raised as she waved the papers in my face, but when our eyes met, her lips crinkled into a smile. I smiled back and accepted the papers from her, which were about some lab we were doing soon. Lost in thought again, I handed the last paper to the kid sitting behind me.

Maybe I'd have a friend, after all, this girl who was always smiling me, who seemed kind. She seems to be the only person in the entire school, who did not care that I sat with Li at lunch.

A folded piece of notebook paper was taped onto my locker. Frowning, I pulled the paper off and unfolded it. In a juvenile scribble, someone had written a poem in black ink. At the top, it read "Advice to Emerald". My eyes drifted down and I started to read.

_Hi Sakura, the new girl,_

_Your decisions are frail!_

_Leave the Li kid,_

_Or you will also in wound!_

_You should stay away from him,_

_As his past are very grim!_

_I hope you'll pay attention to my words_

_Or you will regret your deeds!_

_-_

_A Guiding Spirit_

_(PS: You may already know it_

_But I am no poet)_

I read the poem one more time. Signed A Guiding Spirit.

Who had written this, and why he/she had written a poem instead of an average note of prose? Hmm. I just didn't get it. I mean, I understood what the writer was trying to tell me, but why had the person signed it anonymously? And the format of the advice still puzzled me.

I stalled for as long as I could while walking to the front of the school gate. I anxiously waited for my brother there. When he arrived, I threw my backpack into the backseat, sat down next to him, and slammed the door shut.

"THIS SCHOOL IS FULL OF STRANGE KIDS!" I finally screamed

"I couldn't tell," He tried to joke.

"You wouldn't understand, Oniichan," I snapped.

"What?" He frowned. "Why wouldn't I understand?"

I looked at him. "I want to go home. Start driving."

Sighing, he turned the car on and began the drive back to our new home. "So what happened today?" He asked.

"I don't have any friends yet. Everyone out here is confusing." I prevaricated.

"To adjust with everything out here, it may take time, sweetheart. Wait till then."

I sighed heavily and kept quiet. He's right. It may take time.

When I told Chiraru about my conversation with Li at lunch and the poem, she told me that maybe I should listen to that advice.

"Seriously," she worried. "What if he's some crazy guy with multiple personalities or something and he isolates himself for the good of other people?"

"Chiru," I laughed.

"I'm scared for you, Sakura," she admitted, ignoring my laughter. "Seriously, there's gotta be a reason the entire school is scared of this guy."

I lay back in my bed, my back flat against the mattress. "He's probably just misunderstood. I mean, he has green hair and tattoos."

"Sakura."

"You're being ridiculous."

"So are you."

"I'm trying to befriend the loner!" I pushed myself into sitting position and leaned back against the pillows. "How is that ridiculous? It's nice!"

"Because, Sakura, he doesn't wanna be your friend. And he has a bad reputation. There are usually reasons for bad reputations."

"Chiru, of all people, I can't believe you would judge someone by their reputation."

"Seriously, what if the rumors are true? I don't want you to get hurt or anything, and I'm just scared for you. You know? I mean -"

"Chiru," I interrupted, frustrated and not in the mood for one of her boring lectures. I picked up a pencil lying on the nightstand and began to twirl it between my fingers. "Please. I don't really think he's as bad as people say he is. I mean, today at lunch… I just don't think he'd ever actually hurt someone."

"Mmmm," she replied suspiciously.

"I mean it, Chiru. There's something... I dunno.... about him."

She snorted. "Yeah, yeah."

I rolled my eyes and stopped the twirling the pencil. "You wouldn't understand unless you talked to him, Chiru. I think he's scared."

"Scared of what? You? No offense, Sakura, but you're not exactly a scary person."

"I didn't say he was scared of me," I snapped. I started twirling the pencil again, but I went too fast out of my annoyance and it flew out of my hands, across the room. "I think he's scared of someone getting too close to him."

"And you want to be his savior by delivering him from the pits of misunderstood solitude." She sighed. "That kind of thing only happens in books, Sakura."

"I never said I wanted to be his savior. I just wanna be his friend."

"Do you have a death wish? Seriously."

"He said that same thing to me yesterday. Minus the 'seriously' part."

"He's giving you chances to escape, Sakura. I highly recommend that you take them."

"I don't think you understand, Chiru. Nobody else wants to be my friend because I've talked to him," I attempted to explain.

"That's just retarded," she complained on my behalf.

"Don't say retarded, and yeah, it's stupid. But it's true."

"It's only the second day of school; I'm sure you have time to pull out and make other friends."

"Not really."

She sighed.

"I'm sick of talking about this, Chiru," I quickly intruded. "We don't even get to see each other anymore, and we're sitting here arguing about a boy."

'_Not just any boy, though.'_

"You're right," she agreed. "This is stupid. But remember what I was telling you about Diva yesterday?"

From there, she launched into the story about Diva getting into a fight with Chiraru and how it was solved. I listened patiently, nodding my head at all the right parts and saying Mmm when she paused; even then I couldn't stop thinking about Li.

--*--*--

_A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! _


	4. Chapter 4

_I, SJ, DO NOT OWN Cardcaptor Sakura. It belongs to CLAMP. This fanfiction was inspired from the story - 'At the end of the day'._

**Title: Strangely Connected **

**--*--*--**

**Chapter 4**

There was another folded piece of paper on my locker when I arrived at school the next morning. It was just small scrap, about the size of my palm, with unevenly ripped edges. The writing on it was messier than last time, in pencil this time, as if the writer had scribbled it down in a hurry.

_Sakura,_

_I hope you'll listen to me._

_My advice is to help you._

_So please listen to me!_

_-A Guiding Spirit_

_(P.S : What do you think of my poems?)_

My lips curved into a smile upon reading this. I found it amusing that A Guiding Spirit asked me my opinion of his silly poems. I wondered if there was any way I could contact the person who was writing these notes. In my mind I formulated a new idea that I could write responses to A Guiding Spirit, tape them to my locker, and wait to see whether he/she would pick it up.

"Hello?"

I spun around to find myself looking at the same petite pale girl who had always smiled at me.

"I'm Tomoyo," she told me with a smile, tilting her head to the right. I wasn't sure how, but it made her seem more friendly.

"Sakura," I responded with a suspicious smile, confused as to why she was suddenly talking to me. Not that I wasn't glad for it.

"I've just seen you with Li and all," she explained, as if reading my thoughts, "So I figured you could use a real friend. He's scary, isn't he?"

I glanced down at the note in my hand, wondering if this girl, Amelia, was the one who had sent me the past two notes. "Yeah...." I thought about a way that I might cleverly find out if she was the writer or not. "Hey, do you like poems?"

She frowned. "Poems? I hate poems. And English. If I never had to take an English class again, that'd be my own personal paradise."

"Really."

"Yeah." She nodded. "I'm a math-science nerd," she explained. "Ask me for the cotangent of pi-over-six, and I'm your girl. But ask me who wrote The Merchant of Venice?" She widened her eyes and shook her head. "Nope."

"What is it again?"

She furrowed her eyebrows. "The author of The Merchant of Venice?"

"No, no, the cotangent of pie-over-six."

"Oh." She smiled somewhat smugly. "Square root of three."

I pondered the unit circle for a few moments, struggling to recall what I'd learned in Pre-calculus last year.

"Oh," I mused once I recalled what Amelia was talking about. "You're right."

"Yeah." She raised her eyebrows. "But if you asked me to analyze Hamlet I'd just look at you like you asked me to jump off a cliff, or something."

I chuckled and smiled. "It's okay, I'm not much of an English person myself."

A full out grin stretched out across her face. "I think we'll get along, then."

I grinned back — I couldn't help it. Her grin was contagious, not to mention that I was ecstatic that someone other than an emotionally wrecked boy and a gossip-obsessed girl was talking to me. Someone was actually attempting to be my friend. It was only until recently that I'd realized the value of friendship.

"I have to go," she continued. "But I'll see you later." She smiled brightly, spun around, and began walking down the hallway.

'_At least I have one normal friend out here.'_

--*--*--

I was surprised to see that Li had turned up for AP Calculus that day. I don't know why it surprised me, but it did. For some reason, I had expected him to be absent from school for the entire day. After all, he'd disappeared during lunch yesterday and never returned. This period, though, he didn't look at me. He wouldn't look at me. But I stared at him almost unceasingly. The fact that he didn't look at me, however, was not surprising.

The most surprising event of the entire day was when I spotted him at his usual table in the corner of the cafeteria during lunch. I had expected him to find another place to eat, or to hide out in the media center for the duration of the lunch period. He had to have known that I was going to sit with him, and since he'd made it clear that he did not want this to happen, I figured he wouldn't sit in the cafeteria anymore. Yet there he was, reading his book, oblivious to the stares of the table next to his, where the Gossip Queen sat, glancing back and forth between him and me. Tomoyo was sitting at this latter table, a smirk on her face as she spoke with the girls around her. But suddenly she looked up and upon seeing me, wiped the smirk away into a cheerful grin. I smiled back, but I didn't want to sit with her, because she may lose her friends because of me.

When I sat down across from Li, his shoulders sagged and his face drooped in what could have been either a relieved or a helpless manner, though I guessed it was the latter.

"You don't hate me as much as you say you do," I announced to him as I pulled my brown paper bag out of my backpack and rested it on the table.

"Excuse me?" he demanded, lifting his head up only slightly so that his amber eyes appeared narrowed in anger. I wasn't afraid of him. Not anymore.

Inwardly, I was pleased that his reaction was so immediate.

"If you hated me as much as you said you did, you wouldn't be here," I explained nonchalantly. I shrugged and turned my attention down to my lunch.

"You're not that special," he sneered.

I still didn't glance up at him, instead opting to pull my sandwich out of its plastic baggie and take a bite. I waited to chew and swallow before saying, "Apparently, I am, since you get so pissed off at me."

"I can handle you."

"Except for yesterday, when you walked out of the cafeteria during the middle of lunch." After this statement, I allowed myself to look up at his face again. The ring in his left eyebrow was moving, and he was still looking up at me with that narrowed face that covered his mouth in a shadow.

"Don't be so proud of yourself," he snapped, "and think I left because of you."

"Really?" I raised my eyebrows. "So why did you leave in such a hurry and leave all your stuff behind?"

He sat up straight in his seat, causing him to be taller than me, and lifted his chin to look me squarely in the face. "It wasn't you, I can assure you of that."

"Look." I leaned forward and placed both elbows on the table. "I don't know what your problem is, but I'm going to find out."

Both of his eyebrows raised high into the air, though his left one twitched, and he snorted. "Yeah, I'm eagerly waiting to tell you."

I smiled, relishing in the fact that he had absolutely no idea that he'd fallen into my trap. We were having conversation. Granted, it was hostile and more like an argument than an actual civil conversation, but it was an exchange of words nevertheless. Everything has a beginning, and this was mine - nope - OURS.

"Why are you smiling?" he asked suspiciously, a hint of franticness in his voice.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," I replied cryptically, achieving the effect I desired when a exhausted frown appeared on his face. I only meant that he wouldn't tell me anything, so therefore, I wouldn't tell him anything.

"What is that supposed to mean?" he matted, inserting into the question a sarcastic tone that didn't really need to be there.

"You tell me." I leaned back, took my elbows off of the table, and chewed another bite out of my sandwich. Li, upon seeing me eat, bit a large piece out of his pizza and chewed it slowly, his angry gaze fixed firmly on me.

We sat in silence for a few moments as we ate. While I chewed thoughtfully, deliberating over my next words to Mr. Green Head.

"My lunch is more important than you," Li announced finally, his response delayed by a few minutes. I knew it was supposed to be an insult; I was so insignificant to him that his food was more important, but I wasn't offended at all. Especially since food keeps people alive. I laughed at this. His eyes hardened and narrowed, and his jaw clenched.

"Look, Li -" I paused right then, realizing that that was the first time I'd ever voiced his name out loud. I had never actually told Chiraru his name. Before he could interrupt me with some sarcastic comment of his, I continued my sentence,

"- I'm not giving up."

"Don't worry," he answered sarcastically, "I'll be perfectly willing to cooperate."

I tilted my head to the side, silently comparing him to my brother and his sarcasm. "Have you ever heard that sarcasm is the cheapest form of wit?" I asked him.

"Have you ever heard of minding your own business?" he shot right back, hardly missing a beat. He was definitely no slow-minded fool that was for sure.

"Nice defense," I approved. "But that doesn't answer my question."

He folded his arms over his chest. I noticed for the first time that they were a neutral skin color — not shockingly white but not unhealthily dark either. Just a normal color. The same went for any muscles he might have had in there. He was just normal. Average. Not more or less. I have to admit, both of these qualities surprised me. I didn't expect an ordinary body for such an unordinary person; but I guess there was a lot I didn't know about him.

"Guess that's a no. What are you, retarded? Can't you see I don't like you?"

"Don't use that word," I warned darkly, glaring at him.

"What word? Retarded?" The way he pronounced this last word made it sound as though he were making fun of me.

I frowned. "Yes. That word."

"So you're politically correct, then."

"I just don't think it's so nice to call people retarded when they're not. Have you ever seen an actual retarded person?"

"What if I called you dumb?" he asked, ignoring my question. "Hm? Would you tell me that dumb people can't talk?"

I glowered in response.

"How about gay? What if I said that assigned seats are gay?"

"What if you were gay?" I snapped. "And you heard people calling things that were stupid 'gay'?"

"Welcome to the twenty-first century, Sakura."

That statement right there effectively ended any argument with which I had intended to counter him. Well, not the whole statement, but the last word that he tagged on there. My name.

"My name," I murmured, thinking aloud more than actually meaning for Li to listen. "You remember my name," I repeated, louder this time.

His entire face contorted into a deep scowl. "No, I don't."

"Yes, you do. You just called me by my name."

"I was just guessing."

"No, you weren't. You really do remember my name."

The color of his face was absolutely RED, at this point. And I thought his face might collapse in on itself because of how hard he was scowling. "Shut up!" he bellowed, banging his fist on the table. I noticed that the lilt was back in his voice. This outburst quieted not only me, but a few nearby tables as well, whose occupants all looked over at us with interest. Akira's table seemed especially intrigued. When the spell of silence broke, that table in particular burst into a hush of excited whispers. I started eating my sandwich to cover up the smile that wanted to show on my face. I'd gotten through to Li. I'd annoyed him. I'd forced him into showing to me that he was capable of human emotion, even if it was just anger.

It wasn't much, but at least it was a start.

--*--*--

When I walked into Biology later that day, Tomoyo was sitting in my seat facing the left, leaning over to chat with the Gossip Queen. You know how whenever you walk into a classroom and your usual seat is occupied, you just stop where you are? That's what I did, watching Tomoyo with a puzzled expression on my face. Akira looked up and, noticing me, nodded her head in my direction. With startling speed, Tomoyo turned to me and grinned. I returned this with a hesitant smile and made my way over to my desk when she went back to her own assigned seat. Once I sat down, she turned around and smiled.

"Hi."

"Hey," I responded, leaning over the side of the seat to retrieve my Biology binder from my backpack.

"You know that lab we're supposed to do next week?"

I nodded.

"Well, I was thinking, you wanna be my partner?" She paused for a second, as if she expected I would say no immediately. "'Cause I mean, I thought you'd just work with Li since you've been sitting with him at lunch and stuff, but today I heard him yelling at you so I figured you probably wouldn't."

I shook my head rapidly. "I couldn't be Li's friend. He hates me."

She snorted in a delicate sort of way that I never thought possible before. Snorts usually sounded vulgar and unladylike, but hers was surprisingly decent. "He hates everyone. But I guess he hates you more or something, probably 'cause you're talking to him. What was he yelling at you about anyway?"

I shrugged and shifted my gaze elsewhere, hoping she wasn't a miniature Akira. Another gossip hunter?

"I mean, it's not a big deal," she continued, perhaps sensing this thought of mine. "If you don't wanna tell me, that's cool. I was just wondering and all because nobody's ever seen Li have human emotion, you know? Besides hate, I mean. Like, he totally doesn't react to anything, so it was weird that he yelled at you."

Suspiciously, I snuck a glance at Akira to see if she was perhaps eagerly trying to eavesdrop on Tomoyo and me, but her attention was turned to a different conversation entirely. So I didn't really mind telling Tomoyo, "He yelled at me because he remembered my name."

Tomoyo's eyebrow puckered above her amethyst eyes. "What? I mean, why would he yell at you for that? Isn't it his fault?"

"Well, yeah, but I was rubbing it in."

"Oh." She frowned and seemed to consider this. She appeared to be on the brink of saying something else when Mr. Hussar interrupted her by loudly proclaiming, "Okay, class! Today we're going to learning about our friend, the microscope!"

Tomoyo flashed me a grin before turning back around in her seat. That was the point at which I realized I hadn't seen Li walk in. Was he here? I turned around only to confirm, that yes, he was present, with the same permanent scowl on his face. But I swiveled to face the front once more before he could see me looking.

--*--*--

Tomoyo accompanied me to my locker after Biology let out. She was a talkative girl, that was for sure. In fact, she almost reminded me of Chiraru in that regard—and because they were both bubbly, talked fast, and had a way of speaking that might sound ditzy to those who don't know them. And then I wondered: could she be my replacement Chiraru? My new best friend?

These were things I could never share with Chiraru herself.

We reached my locker before we reached Tomoyo's. Another piece of folded notebook paper had been taped to my locker, just like the two before it. This time, my name, Sakura, had been written on the outside in the same loopy scrawl that A Guiding Spirit used.

"Ooooh!" Tomoyo squealed suggestively, raising her eyebrows. "A note?"

I quickly snatched it off my locker. "It's nothing," I explained hastily—perhaps too hastily. I didn't want Tomoyo to know about A Guiding Spirit. At least, not yet. "I mean, I just... write myself to do lists and then stick them on my locker so I won't forget."

She seemed as though she believed me. Her eyebrows went back to their normal position over her eyes. "Oh." She craned her neck to look at the note, at which point I clasped my hands together and kept the note in between them so she couldn't see it. "That's actually a pretty good idea," she continued. "Maybe I should try that. I get so disorganized sometimes, it's ridiculous."

"Yeah, it helps me a lot," I lied, looking at the people passing on her right.

"'Kay, well I gotta go to my locker. I'll see you later!" She smiled, waved, and turned to make her way down the hallway. I watched her until she was out of my line of sight, then unfolded the note that had been on my locker.

_Frown_

_Always spread on his face_

_Is not very pleasing._

_Advice_

_Is all that you need_

_But you just won't listen._

_Really_

_I suck at poems so much_

_Please forgive me of this._

_- A Guiding Spirit_

_(P.S: This poem was about Li, if you didn't already guess.)_

I smiled at the note. She (I didn't mean to be sexist, but I had a strong feeling that A Guiding Spirit was female) had an odd personality. But why did she keep writing in poems, especially if she sucked at them so much?

I decided to leave a note taped to my own locker addressed to A Guiding Spirit. The next time she came to leave note on my locker, she would see that one. I sat down in front of my locker, ripped a piece of paper out of my notebook, and hastily began writing my note.

_A Guiding Spirit,_

_If you suck at poems so much, then why bother writing them?_

_BTW, I just wanna let you know I'm not gonna leave him alone. What proof do you have that he's actually dangerous? Maybe he's just misunderstood. I doubt you'd know cuz it seems like you judged him just based on his appearance._

_-Sakura_

_(P.S: If you have a better of way for me to contact you, let me know.)_

I read over the note to make sure it said everything I wanted before folding it up and writing A Guiding Spirit on the outside. I went into a classroom near my locker, ripped some tape off of the roll on the teacher's desk, and taped my note to the outside of my locker. After staring at this note for a while, I opened my locker and gathered the various books I needed for the weekend.

--*--*--

Touya was smiling when he picked me up from school. Smiling. I hadn't seen Touya smile since we'd moved here a couple weeks ago.

"Somebody's happy out here," I commented as soon as I hopped into the car. I put my backpack at my feet and laid back in the seat, gazing thoughtfully at him.

"I'm going on a date with one of the teachers."

"What!! Is that allowed?"

"Yeah, it's allowed here. I'm loving here."

"Really," I said noncommittally.

"So how was your day? Got any friends yet?" My brother sounded worried.

"Better day, friends I dunno about that," I smiled at him.

--*--*--

When I called Chiraru that evening, she answered only to inform me that she wasn't allowed on the phone for a few days, even to talk to me, her "best friend in the entire universe" who'd moved away, because she failed a Physics quiz. Science always was her weakest subject. I thought back to Tomoyo, a devotee of math and science. She wouldn't have failed a Physics quiz, I'd bet. Maybe she and Chiraru weren't so similar after all.

I set my phone back on my nightstand and lay on my bed doing absolutely nothing at all, unless you count staring at the ceiling. In the room next to mine, I could hear Touya playing music as he prepped for the movies tonight. Something twisted inside me, and I realized with a start that I was partially jealous because even my brother was happy about the move here. Tomoyo seemed to be my new friend, but we aren't that close that she would want to spend the entire weekend with me. I didn't even have a hope of doing anything with anyone from here because I didn't have anyone's phone number, and nobody had mine.

And maybe I didn't entirely blame my dad for the move, but right now, I hated him so much for relocating us that I wanted to take my backpack and throw it at him. Instead, I rolled over onto my stomach and screamed into my pillow.

I lay there for a few minutes absorbing what was happening around me. Chiraru was prohibited from the phone; Touya was getting ready to go out with his date; my dad was working late as usual; and I was just stuck here, bored and alone.

That's why I found myself searching the school phonebook for the name Syaoran Li.

--*--*--

_A/N: _

_HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!_

_Thanks to all who reviewed! And keep on reviewing!! :)_


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